A problem often encountered with the use of cleaning buckets is that dirt deposited out from the mop bucket liquid collects at the bottom of the container and that turbulence of the liquid, as when rinsing out a mop, washes the dirty water back into the main body of liquid where it may again be absorbed into the mop. The mop then spreads soil back out on the floor, leaving unsightly streaks and leading to incomplete cleaning. In an attempt to alleviate this problem, the mop bucket is too often emptied and cleaned out before any cleaning additives that may have been put into the liquid have been exhausted.
The problem is twofold. First is the difficulty of separating heavy soil components such as dirt or grease attached to dirt, from cleaner water in the mop bucket. The second difficulty is turbulence within the water caused by the swishing of the mop within the bucket or residual sloshing movement of water after the bucket has been moved. The turbulence tends to disturb soil, sludge and other heavy components of dirty water and evenly distribute them within the body of water to be picked up again when the mop is rinsed in the bucket, even if care is taken not to push the mophead all the way down to the bottom of the bucket.
According to the present invention there is provided a filter and filter holder assembly for inserting into a container for cleaning liquid such as a mop bucket. The assembly includes spaced filter holders of rigid grid material which are separated a sufficient distance to permit a sturdy, semi-rigid and floatable filter element to move there between. The filter element permits soil laden water to pass through freely. The free floating action of the filter element between the two grid holders provides a damping function to water disturbance waves in order to reduce turbulence that would stir sediment upwardly from the bottom of the bucket.
The support grids protect the filter element. The combination of the support grids and filter element blocks turbulence and prevents dirt from being stirred up at the base of the bucket. Under certain circumstances, such as mopping up large particles, the support grids without the middle filter element may work satisfactorily. Also, powders used for cleaning can be placed in self dissolving packets beneath the support grids and the support grids will prevent any residue of the packets from coming into contact with a mophead or other cleaning element.
This invention is related to a patent owned by the assignee's related company, U.S. Pat. No. 4,878,264. An embodiment of that invention positions a filter element at the bottom of a mop bucket in or to absorb soil material and reduce its capacity to be stirred up into relatively clean mop water. This liquid filter arrangement is directed to hard grit and dirt particles which are induced by chemical means to be forced out of suspension. However, grease and sludge cannot generally be forced out of suspension by the use of normal cleaning chemicals in a mop bucket and generally cannot be forced below the bottom eight inches of water solution in the bucket.